


His Last Case

by marcelo



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 11:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1940037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcelo/pseuds/marcelo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solving the puzzle is not the problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Last Case

**Author's Note:**

  * For [2ndA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/2ndA/gifts).



As the world's climate spun out of control, most of London migrated northwards, escaping floodings, mutated malaria, and an all-pervading sense of guilty despair. In the North awaited Free Scottland, the camps, more disease, and more violence. Anybody with eyes could see the country falling apart; those with keen eyes saw the few hands holding things together a few moments more, among them John Watson's. Short but spry, he was a doctor to those who needed help, and well-founded rumour told that he could keep his own with the desperate many who preferred a fight.

People "in the know" knew that his work in the camps, as much as his previous relationship with the younger brother, was what got him regular dinning invitations to Mycroft Holmes' home. The name was rather better known than it had been; an ongoing apocalypse had made operational secrecy, at times, a lesser priority to collective survival.

John Watson knew that the real reason wasn't his services', but his wife's. Changes in technology and operational craft had made her experience ---still inferred rather than known, as far as he was concerned--- useful in spite of her advancing age, so when she "went away" for days after short meetings with Mycroft, John never asked, or even pointedly failed to ask. As Afghanistan, and as Old London, once, the world was now a battlefield. He was simply, quietly relieved every time she came back.

Sherlock... Sherlock had become a ghost. Whether doing Mycroft's bidding or not, he had worked on his own during the last decade, and if that was a practical decision or to protect John, the doctor had, also, refrained to ask every one of the rare occasions in which they had met. He was a father know, and he had a camp full of patients, and... Well. Something in Sherlock's eyes had almost begged him to stay away.

And yet Watson couldn't but feel an incongruous feeling of missed opportunities, as he quickly checked his chained friend's health.

"I know you're pretending to be unconscious. Stop that now."

"Hello, John."

"Don't Hello, John me. I haven't seen you in, what, two years?"

"Twenty-seven months, five days, and three hours, give or take. What are you doing here?"

"What _I_ am doing here? What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm working a case. Well, I have solved the case. I'm just..."

"Chained in a bloody dungeon? I didn't know we had dungeons anymore. I bet they build it just for you. You have that effect on folks."

"John, you should be more respectful of your sovereign. I know you spent some time with him in the field during the Evacuation, but he's still your King."

"Harry? _Harry_ put you in here? What in hell for?"

"Lovely seeing you. Please ask the guard to close the door on your way out, otherwise the escape wouldn't be a challenge."

"Sherlock! Why. Did. The. Bloody. King. Put. You. In. Chains?"

"John, please. Go. Just go."

"No. I've. No. After all we have gone through, I did not help move bloody London half a country to the north so you would get yourself in chains for some damned thing you won't even tell me about. Who even gets chained? It's almost mid-century!"

"The chains are just for Harry's amusement. The serious bit is going to be my execution."

"Wait. Execution? You're going to be _killed_?"

"Beheaded at dawn. Very traditional sort of thing for traitors. King Harry is a very traditional man."

"You are not... You are not a traitor, Sherlock. You saved the bloody country half a dozen times!"

"Ten, actually. I've been busy these last years. But the King seems to have taken umbrage at me solving my last case."

"Then... I don't know, _drop it_? Tell Harry you will stop investigating. Buy yourself some time."

"Ah, that might be a problem. Harry knows I've solved it. That's the problem."

"What do you mean, that's the problem?"

" _He did it, John. _And I can prove it."__

__"He killed his..."_ _

__"Don't say it. Forget you hear it. Just go away. Please. Do this last favor for me. If I can, I will escape, and if I can't, I don't want anything to happen to you."_ _

__"What about Mycroft? Can't he help?"_ _

__"My brother and I are going through a somewhat fraught phase in our relationship. He is the one who alerted the King and arranged for my capture."_ _

__"He... The bloody pair of you crazy morons. Why? Why did you even began to investigate...? No, stupid question. Why did he do that?"_ _

__"It's always interesting to consider my brother's methods. I had five hypothesis in mind, but your coming here narrowed them down."_ _

__"To?"_ _

__"One. And that one is why you need to walk away. Please. For your life, for Mary's, for your daughter's. I would be a terrible godparent if I got her father dead."_ _

__"So drop the case. Swear to Harry that you will let it go. I'm friends with him --- I thought I was friends with him --- I will vouch for you."_ _

__"No. Don't you see, John? He won't be convinced. I have gotten to know his mind intimately during my investigation, and there is no chance he will let me live."_ _

__"But..."_ _

__"Tell me. Did Mycroft send you here?"_ _

__"Yes. To help you, I thought. Are you saying he made a mistake about Harry?"_ _

__"My brother seldom makes mistakes, and never of this kind. He knows me, I'm afraid, and he knows Harry. And he certainly knows you, and what you will do. Which is why I'm begging you not to try to save me."_ _

__"I have to."_ _

__"You will fail."_ _

__"I will not."_ _

__"John, you will fail to convince Harry."_ _

__"Then..."_ _

__"Don't you see? That's Mycroft extrapolation. Harry trusts you despite our past association; given our recent lack of joint work, he will think you safe. You will gain audience with him, probably in a somewhat intimate soldiers' way, and you will try and fail to sway his mind. In a way, he won't be wrong - I have a certain degree of flexibility when it comes to pursuing specific crimes once I have solved the puzzle, but his I take him as a personal matter. So he will deny your request, and once you realize that, you will try and kill him."_ _

__"Sherlock!"_ _

__"Mycroft knows you would, I know you would, and I think by now you know yourself enough to know you would. We aren't young enough for self-deception anymore, John."_ _

__"And why would Mycroft want that, for God's sake?"_ _

__"From what I gather, Harry is too meddlesome for my brother's tastes. He has no problem with regal homicides, but he won't allow interference with his administrative policies. Apparently the end of the world has finally made the game challenging enough for him."_ _

__"..."_ _

__"John, don't."_ _

__"Well, you've made your point clear. I'll be leaving you."_ _

__"John, you're a terrible liar. Don't do that."_ _

__"I think I'll say hello to Harry in my way out."_ _

__"John, please don't. Think of Mary! Think of your daughter!"_ _

__"I _am_ , Sherlock. I'll see you later."_ _

__"John!"_ _

__.finis._ _


End file.
